The spread of Buddhism


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

The spread of Buddhism

The spread of Buddhism: The most famous Kushana ruler was Kanishka, who ruled around 1900 years ago. He organized a Buddhist council, where scholars met and discussed important matters. Ashvaghosha, a poet who composed a biography of the Buddha, the Buddhacharita, lived in his court. Ashvaghosha and other Buddhist scholar now began writing in Sanskrit.

A new form of Buddhism, known as Mahayana Buddhism. The second change was a belief in bodhisattvas. These were supposed to be persons who had attained enlightenment. Once they attained enlightenment, they could live in complete isolation and meditate in peace. However, instead of doing that, they remained in the world to teach and help other people. The worship of bodhisattvas became very popular, and spread throughout central Asia, China and later to Korea and Japan. Buddhism also spread to western and southern India. Where dozens of caves were hollowed out of hills for monks to live in.

The quest of the pilgrims: As traders journeyed to distant lands in caravans and ships, pilgrims often travelled with them. The best- known of these are the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Fa-Xian, who came to the subcontinent about 1600 years ago, Xuan Zang ( who came around 1400 year ago) and I-Qing, who came about 50 years after Xuan Zang. They came to visit places associated with the life of the Buddha as well as famous monasteries.

Xuan Zang, who took the land route back to China( through the north- west, and central Asia) carried back with him statues of the Buddha made of gold, silver and sandalwood, and over 600 manuscripts loaded on the backs of 20 horses. Over 50 manuscripts were lost when the boat on which he was crossing the Indus capsized. He spent the rest of his life translating the remaining manuscripts from Sanskrit into Chinese.

 
 


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